Ultra-high accuracy tracking and high-resolution imagery to support target classification and recognition at long range is currently provided by high-resolution electro-optic devices, with the drawback of very limited performance in adverse weather conditions, or by Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) techniques which have the drawback of lengthy acquisition times and reduced performance when imaging moving targets.
One possible solution is the use of very large effective apertures which provide angular resolutions which are orders of magnitude better than conventional radars, which have beam widths of a few degrees (tens of milli-radians). This enhanced resolution is comparable to that achievable from high resolution visible band electro-optic (EO) sensor systems, but, unlike EO, are capable of sustained operation under all weather conditions and with simultaneous 360 degree coverage.
The recent development of micro-UAV swarm technology provides a simple inexpensive sensor array which provides an airborne aperture for surveillance of remote locations in hazardous and hostile environments.
The swarm flies over a target area gathering data and providing imagery of a target. However, the effects of turbulence and positional errors of the individual UAVs have a dramatic impact on the accuracy and resolution of the resulting image. This is overcome by the use of positional triangulation techniques using wireless technologies and compensation algorithms.